So, this is spiritual heart, yes! Bhagavan’s teachings touch our
heart, not the head. When these teachings touch our head, we begin
to question, "Was what Swami said correct or not? Is it right or
not?" Somebody said, "Sir, Swami said…Is it true?"

"When Swami said it, why do you doubt whether it is true or not? I
don’t understand. Can you say false also? Well, I don’t know.
Whether right or wrong?"

"Sir, Swami said it. Is it right or wrong?"

"When Swami says it, it is right!"

"Is it true or false?"

"It is true! Why do you doubt it?"

We doubt it because when the message goes to our mind, the mind
tries to judge. It tries to discriminate. It tries to decide. But
when the message goes straight to the heart, it seeps in. It goes in
deep, something like blotting paper that absorbs ink; something like
sand into which water sinks. When there is heavy rain, because of
the water that falls on the ground along the seashore or any sandy
area, it seeps in deeply. It is absorbed completely.

Similarly, guru's message, when it touches our heart, it is
absorbed. When it goes to the head, mind decides, judges, goes on
thinking. All teachers’ teachings touch our mind. But guru’s
teachings reach our heart. The teachings of a guru reach our
heart, whereas the teachings of a teacher just touch our head,
awaiting our discrimination on what we want to decide.

Another point is also this: A real guru will always speak
about your true nature. My friends, what is it that is common in all
the Sathya Sai discourses? I believe that there are 31 volumes now
of Sathya Sai Speaks, 10 volumes of Vahinis, 10
volumes of Summer Course discourses. 20 + 31 = 51. All these book,
all these hundreds of discourses, what is the common thread? Only
one thing: revealing our true identity, that you are not the body,
that you are not the mind.

You are Atma. You are consciousness. You are the spirit. That
is the only message, the underlying current, running through all
these 51 volumes, all these hundreds of discourses. In every talk,
He lays emphasis on this: Divyatmaswarupalara! Embodiments of
the Divine! You are an embodiment of the Divine; that you are
Atma. In every talk He necessarily mentions this because it is
the quality of a guru. The highest and the greatest teaching
of a guru is to remind us of our nature, to help us to find
our true identity.

Bhagavan goes one step further. "Forgetfulness of our true nature is
death. Remembrance of our true nature is life or birth." In order to
live our lives well, not simply like any other machine, but to live
well, let us live in the full awareness, in the constant remembrance
of our true identity.

What Bhagavan says is this: A true guru tells you only one
method. He does not show you so many methods. He does not confuse
you. He does not burden you. He does not strain you. He does not
allow you to be under stress and strain and effort, exertion,
exhaustion, no, no. No exhaustion, no exertion. A simple thing, only
one formula: Upasana.

What is Upasana according to Bhagavan Baba? Upasana is
the experience of our true nature in the waking state, in spite of
the objects around and our senses being alert.

In the waking state, our senses are active. I see all of you. I hear
all of the sounds. All objects are there. My senses are alert, quite
receptive, sensitive, because this is the waking state. In this
waking state of senses being alert, with the objects around if I
still manage to be aware of my true nature that is called Upasana.
Upasana: Upa – near; asana – sitting,
comfortable sitting. 'Comfortable sitting near our true Self, near
our true nature, near God within’, that is Upasana.

But the traditional, conventional meaning of Upasana is so
confusing that you give up making any attempt because after starving
for 15 days, getting up at midnight for 15 days - well, in the
meantime we get exhausted that’s all, leave alone realisation.
Impossible! Upasana is not a conventional meaning that
Bhagavan Baba gives you. He comes forward with a new approach.

Then another point: Somebody said, "Baba, where are Baba’s Feet?
Where are they? ‘O Bhagavan, to Thy Feet I offer my humble
salutations. My humble salutations to Thy Lotus Feet.’ Where are
they, Bhagavan, where are they?"

"Your Feet are spread everywhere." The speaker went on speaking like
that. Swami was observing him; letting him go to whatever extent he
would go. And then that man said, "Swami, Your compassion is so
great, Your Love is so vast like that of an ocean!" Like that of an
ocean, as deep as an ocean.

Then Swami said, "Enough. Sit down." Enough. This is His remark:
"Why do you say ‘So vast as an ocean?’ No. More than that. Why?
Ocean has got its limits. Ocean has got its boundaries. But God’s
compassion has no limits. God’s compassion has no boundaries. It is
infinite. It is so vast. So do not compare it with that of an
ocean." That’s what Bhagavan has said.

Therefore guru’s teaching is another thing. My attempt is
this: to make us realise in terms of Swami’s message, His own
message. He should help us to understand His own message. We can
understand His message through His message only, or else I go on
interpreting in my own way and we can find ourselves in confusion.
Bhagavan said, "You can see the sun in the sunlight only. You can
see the moon in the moonlight only."

Similarly, you can understand Sai's message through His Message
only, not through your message or my message. Ours is ‘massage’, not
message, ‘massage’! Let’s not try to interpret Swami at all! Because
we are the contemporaries of the living, loving God, when He is
there to explain every little thing in detail, why should we
explain? Why should we interpret? It is not necessary.

Total passive surrender: Total passive surrender to the magnetic
Divinity within." What beautiful words! Divinity is magnetic. It
means ‘just like a magnet that attracts’. We attract people, of
course, depending upon one’s own standard. Objects attract. All
objects have got this attraction. All human beings have attraction.
It is nothing but magnetism. That’s what Swami has been talking
about in the recent discourses, "You are the magnet. You are the
computer. You are the heat. You are the energy." That’s what Swami
is talking about recently.

So you are the magnet because you attract everybody, don’t you? Yes.
Or else we don’t have friends at all. We can’t continue to live in
society. We live in society because we attract some people,
like-minded people. ‘Birds of same feathers flock together.’ We
attract our own people. That’s right. So it is magnetism.

Now, the guru’s teaching is "passive total surrender to the
magnetic Divinity within". That Divinity, which is magnetic, to that
Divinity, we have to surrender totally, passively.

Why not actively? Why not? If you are active, you may not be active
later. If you are active, your ego may function. If you are active,
the spirit of ‘I-ness’, the body identity, may raise its ugly head.
When it is passive, the ‘I-ness’ is gone. There is total surrender
to the spirit within, to the Self within. Total surrender - that is
the job of a guru. That’s what guru does.